Google will add a “factory reset protection solution” to its next
Android system, the company said in statement Friday. Microsoft’s
Vice President for US Government Affairs Fred Humphries in the
meantime said his company will offer a new anti-theft mechanism
in the next system update for the phones which operate its
software, including those made by Nokia.

“With these additional features, we’re hopeful that
technology – as part of a broader strategy – can help to further
reduce incentives for criminals to steal smartphones in the first
place,” said Humphries in a blog post.

Apple has already introduced a kill-switch for its iPhones,
adding an ‘activation lock’ and ‘delete phone’ options to its
Find My iPhone app back in September 2013. As a result, thefts of
Apple smartphones in New York fall by 19 percent in the first
five months of 2014 and by 38 percent and 24 percent in San
Francisco and London respectively.

In the meantime some experts worry that software methods aren’t
good enough, since hackers would be able to hijack a kill signal.
And if a phone is turned off or in flight mode then it might not
receive the kill signal at all. This is why some legislators are
pushing for a hard kill switch which instead of rendering the
phone unusable to an unauthorized user, would make it permanently
unusable once stolen.

CTIA – The Wireless Association, a Washington based group that
represents the wireless communications industry, said in April
that it would offer technology next year that will give phone
users the option of rendering their devises inoperable and wiping
them of data in case of theft.

But the San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and the
Mayor of London Boris Johnson who lead the Secure Our Smart
Phones Initiative group said that the offer is not good enough
and fell short “of what is needed to effectively end the
epidemic of smartphone theft” and that the technology should
be enabled on all phone devices by default.

Gascon raised the problem that some users may not know how to use
the feature and if it’s not pre-enabled people will “have to
go on a scavenger hunt and figure out how to turn the technology
on,” he said in a news conference Thursday in Manhattan.

Meanwhile the Washington Federal Communications Commission
Chairman Tom Wheeler said that his agency will have
recommendations out for kill-switch technology by the end of the
year.

“It’s not enough” said Wheeler in reference to a system that
works only if consumers decide to use it. “It’s time to have an
automatic, common solution,” he added.

Both Representative Jose Serrano, a New York Democrat, and
Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, have introduced
bills that would legally require phones sold in the US to include
a kill-switch.

“We’re never going to get to the end of incentives to steal
unless the thieves know they’re stealing a brick,” said
Klobuchar in a meeting Thursday.

The Attorney General of New York Eric Schneiderman, who also
leads the Secure Our Smart Phones Initiative, started a coalition
of law enforcement officials to push the industry into adding the
technology to their phones.

“Today, the smartphone industry acknowledges that its
wonderful products have been driving an international crime wave.
That change in attitude has opened the door to great
possibilities,” said Schneiderman in Thursday’s news
conference.

But tackling phone theft will be an uphill battle. Some 3.1
million mobile devices were stolen in the US in 2013 and in
Europe one in three Europeans had a mobile device stolen or lost
during the same year.